Kelly Hancock, museum educator for the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va., will present a collection of wartime love letters, valentines and home-made items of affection during a presentation Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. The program, titled “Hearts at War: Civil War Valentines and Love Letters from the Collection of the Museum of the Confederacy,” is offered in conjunction with the museum's headline exhibition, “Valley of the Shadow,” commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Participants will learn about the history of St. Valentine's Day, as well as homemade and commercially produced valentines. Tickets cost $5 for nonmembers and are free to museum members.

The Washington County Rural Heritage Museum Board received the 2005 John Frye Historic Preservation Award at Tuesday's County Commissioners meeting. The Museum Board was recognized for its efforts to promote historic preservation in Washington County.

A children's museum in downtown Martinsburg aims to maintain regular hours beginning in September. Jim Castleman, the project manager of the For the Kids by George Children's Museum, said Wednesday that the museum plans to be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Shortly after being dedicated and opened in May, the museum had abandoned a plan to be open regularly on Saturdays due to a lack of visitors and volunteer docents. The heritage-focused museum, located in the city's train station at 229 E. Martin St., is part of an interpretive site for the Washington Heritage Trail, a 136-mile scenic byway that meanders through five 18th-century towns in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.

Eight years in the making, Martinsburg's new social studies and history-focused children's museum at the city's downtown train station is set to open to the public Saturday with a dedication ceremony. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. Tickets, which include brunch, a walking tour of the museum and one free admission (for a return visit) are $15 for adults, $7.50 for children age 6-17 and $1 for those 5 and under. Tickets are $7 without brunch. A dedication program, which is part of Martinsburg Heritage Day festivities, is set to begin at 10 a.m. at the train station.

The Hagerstown Aviation Museum is hosting a reception March 18 for museum members and donors who helped secure the return of the Fairchild C-82 Flying Boxcar to Hagerstown. Other aviation enthusiasts are invited to attend. Tours of the C-82 will be available, weather permitting, and other museum aircraft will be on display in the hangar. The reception will be from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Hagerstown Aircraft Services facility near the airport off U.S. 11 North. Light refreshments will be served.

HAGERSTOWN - The board president of a downtown Hagerstown interactive museum on Tuesday again asked the Washington County Commissioners for money. B. Marie Byers, board president of Discovery Station at Hagerstown Inc., said a $20,000 contribution from the commissioners would help pay for a business administrator and an exhibit that would be locally built and marketed to other museums. The commissioners did not discuss at the meeting whether they supported giving Discovery Station another contribution.

The Discovery Station, a museum and more, opened at 101 W. Washington St. in Hagerstown in May 2005. It contains exhibits, interactive displays and hosts events, including demonstration-learning lectures on designated Saturdays. Discovery Station is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sundays from 2 to 5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays, certain holidays and Sundays during July and August. Admission is $6 for those ages 2 to 17; $7 for adults; and $5 for seniors over age 55 and members of the military.

On Thursday, Hagerstown resident Kathy Shipley stood in the middle of a full-size replica of a third-class cabin from the H.M.S. Titanic at the Discovery Station museum. "It feels like we're in the Titanic," she said. "The rooms are a lot smaller than I would have thought. " The Titanic was on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City when she struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, claiming 1,517 lives. The cabin replica was unveiled Thursday morning as the newest addition to the Titanic exhibit on the first floor of the museum on Washington Street in Hagerstown.

A children's museum that opened in May in downtown Martinsburg no longer is open regularly on Saturdays and has had few visitors since it was dedicated, the board treasurer of the George Washington Heritage Trail Association said Friday. “We didn't have any attendance the first couple Saturdays,” Paul “Kim” Reid said of the For the Kids by George Children's Museum. Given the lack of visitors, shortage of volunteer docents needed to staff the 6,400-square-foot museum and the nonprofit organization's limited budget, regular Saturday hours were eliminated until further notice, Reid said.

The red Dodge Dart is still in Roy Steele's acrylic painting, but the spectators - in the painting and at the art exhibit - know it's got some speed because of the pillows of white smoke coming out of the muscle car's exhaust pipe as it races down a dragway strip. Steele, 51, of Hagerstown, said he named the large canvas work “The Sleeper” because the Dodge's speed is a surprise. For the painting, Steele picked up the Washington County Arts Council's award Sunday at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown's City Park.

The year is 1821 and all of Daniel and Catherine Royer's 10 children are nine years older than they were when they were first introduced to readers in 2012 in “The Royers of Renfrew - A Family Tapestry.” They are now facing all the challenges and choices of adulthood. Having established their thriving Pennsylvania German farmstead and coped with the trauma of the War of 1812, what becomes of the 19th century Royer family members through the first two historical novels in the series will be revealed in the last. The newest volume, “The Fabric of Life,” debuts Saturday at Renfrew Heritage Day at Renfrew Museum and Park.

The Berkeley County Historical Society's museum in Martinsburg is expected to be open daily thanks to a new partnership with the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Convention & Visitors Bureau. The CVB's visitors center will move to the museum at 126 E. Race St. no later than Dec. 1, said Laura Gassler, executive director of the CVB. The move comes at the end of a three-year lease for the visitors center's current location at 115 N. Queen St., Gassler said. “For the CVB, it will save a considerable amount of money on rent, which we can then put into other tourism projects,” Gassler said.

During the month of August, the American Alliance of Museums encourages member organizations to invite their representatives and senators to visit. On Aug. 15, representatives from U.S. Rep. John K. Delaney's 6th District office; Maryland U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin's office; and Maryland U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski's office were hosted by Museum Director Rebecca Massie Lane and Board of Trustees Member Al Martin. A behind-the-scenes tour included the museum's founding, history, educational programs, permanent collections and marketing.

A children's museum in downtown Martinsburg aims to maintain regular hours beginning in September. Jim Castleman, the project manager of the For the Kids by George Children's Museum, said Wednesday that the museum plans to be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Shortly after being dedicated and opened in May, the museum had abandoned a plan to be open regularly on Saturdays due to a lack of visitors and volunteer docents. The heritage-focused museum, located in the city's train station at 229 E. Martin St., is part of an interpretive site for the Washington Heritage Trail, a 136-mile scenic byway that meanders through five 18th-century towns in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.

The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts will offer its Saturday Morning Youth Program during the coming school year. Classes begin Saturday, Sept. 23, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and will meet Oct. 5, 12, 19, 16, Nov. 9, 16 and 23. There will be no class on Saturday, Nov. 2 during the museum's annual Treasure Sale. The second semester will begin Feb. 8 and end March 29. For more than two decades, the program has been funded by the Mary K. Bowman Historical and Fine Arts Fund. This year, the museum has worked with a team of art teachers and an arts curriculum specialist from Washington County Public Schools to create a 16-week curriculum.

The Rural Heritage Museum will hold Spudfest at the museum Saturday, Aug. 24. Registration begins at 10:30 a.m., and the event is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Potatoes will be harvested by a horse-drawn plow and picked up by children for prizes. All village buildings will be open and machinery demonstrations will take place. Homemade chips are made in cast iron kettles over open fire. Lunch will be available for purchase with a potato-themed menu. 4-H Youth Development activities with special children's games and experiments will be available.

High tea hats served as elegant hedges for polite conversation Saturday at Applause Catering. But amid the genteel exchanges ran a common goal and a resolve to achieve it. Attendees of the Friends of the Doleman Black Heritage Museum's Chocolate Garden Tea expressed an interest in preserving and honoring the history of blacks in Washington County, and in acquiring a proper place to do so. “This kind of event gives some historical perspective...

Pilots were not the only ones propelling objects through the air Saturday morning at Hagerstown Regional Airport. Players bent the metaphorical throttle on dodgeballs, sending them hurling across the field to wallop opposing team members. “It's fun to hit people,” player Ian Donnakay said. “Anybody will let you know it's fun to hit somebody as hard and you can. And the balls are soft enough to where none of us are getting really hurt.” It was people such as Donnakay, 30, of Greencastle, Pa., who Allegiant Airlines counted on when it unveiled its Dodge High Fares national advertising campaign.

A children's museum that opened in May in downtown Martinsburg no longer is open regularly on Saturdays and has had few visitors since it was dedicated, the board treasurer of the George Washington Heritage Trail Association said Friday. “We didn't have any attendance the first couple Saturdays,” Paul “Kim” Reid said of the For the Kids by George Children's Museum. Given the lack of visitors, shortage of volunteer docents needed to staff the 6,400-square-foot museum and the nonprofit organization's limited budget, regular Saturday hours were eliminated until further notice, Reid said.